LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



~ PRESENTED BY 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



X 



9 

Iowa and the Centennial. 



THE STATE ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BY 



Hon. C. C. Nourse, 



AT PHILADELPHIA, 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER, 7, 1876. 




DES MOINES: 

IOWA STATE REGISTER PRINT. 
1876. 

or 






'^"\'^ 
,1^^ 



f{c-V^3^ 



ADDRESS OF HON, C. O. NOURSE. 



Mr. Prksident, and Ladies and Gentlemen: — On the 13tli of 
May, A. D., 1673, Jaiues Marquette and Louis Joliette, under the di- 
rection of the French authorities of Canada, started from the Straits of 
Mackinaw, in their frail bark canoes, with five boatmen, " to find out 
and explore the great river lying to the west of them, of which they 
had heard marvelous accounts from the Indians about Lake Michigan." 

From the southern extremity of Green Bay they ascended the Fox 
river, and thence carried their boats and provisions across to the Wis- 
consin. Descending that sti'eam, they reached the Mississippi on the 
iVth of June, and entered its majestic current, " realizing a joy," wrote 
Marquette, " that they could not express." Rapidly and easily they 
swept down to the solitudes below, and viewed on the journey the bold 
bluffs and beautiful meadows on the western bank of the stream, now 
revealed for the fir^t time to the eyes of the white man. This was the 
discovery of Iowa. 

By right of discovery, France claimed jurisdiction over the country 
thus visited, until 1763, when she ceded it to Spain. Spain ceded her 
possession in the Valley of the Mississippi back to France in 1801. 

By treaty, signed on the 30th of April, 1803, the First Consul of the 
French Republic ceded these possessions to the United States. At this 
date the greater portion of the country afterwards constituting Iowa, 
was in the possession of the confederated tribes of Sac and Fox In- 
dians. The first occupation under claim of title, by a white man, of 
any portion of Iowa soil, was by Julian Dubuque, a native of Canada, 
who, in 1788, obtained from Blondeau and two other chiefs of the Fox 
Indians, what he asserted was a grant of lands. He bounded his claim 
as seven leagues on the west bank of the Mississippi, from the mouth 
of the Little Maquoketa river to the Tete Des Morts, and three leagues 
in depth. He also had a qualified confirmation of this grant from Ca- 
rondelet, the Spanish Governor at New Orleans. He took to wife an 
Indian squaw, and occupied the mines until the time of his death, 
1810, employing about ten white men in digging mineral. He was 
buried on the bluff on the Mississippi at the mouth of Catfish creek, 
and the city and county of Dubuque were afterwards named for him. 



The Supreme Court of the United States in 1854 decided that his 
grant was no more than a temporary license to dig ore, and constituted 
no valid claim to the soil. (16 Howard Rep., 224.) 

On the 30th of March, 1799, Louis Honore Tesson, also a native of 
Canada, obtained permission from the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Lou- 
isiana to establish a trading post at the head of the lower rapids of the 
Mississippi river, with the concession of a " sufficient space to make 
the establishment valuable for the commerce of peltries, to watch the 
Indians, and keep them in fidelity to his Majesty." He made such a 
settlement, and it was sold to one of his creditors at sherilF's sale on 
the 15th of May, 1803, for $150. This claim was afterwards allowed 
to the extent of 640 acres, and Martin Van Buren issued a patent 
therefor, February 7, 1839. The Supreme Court of the United States 
in 1852 adjudicated the title valid, and it now constitutes the oldest 
legal title to any land within the State. (14 How. Rep. 513.) 

By an act of Congress approved March 26, 1804, the boundary be- 
tween Upper and Lower Louisiana was established. The lower 
country was called the Territory of New Orleans, and the upper the 
District of Louisiana. The District of Louisiana embraced the pres- 
ent States of Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, and was attached to the 
Territory of Indiana for political and judicial purposes. 

In 1805 General Pike made an official visit to the Mississippi border 
of our State, chiefly to advise the Indians that the United States had 
acquired the sovereignty over the country. In 1804 the expedition of 
Lewis and Clarke to the head waters of the Missouri, visited the 
western border of Iowa. They buried one of their number. Sergeant 
Floyd, on a blufl" of the Missouri, near the mouth of the Sioux river. 
It has ever since been known as Floyd's Bluff, They also held a 
council with the Indians near the northwest corner of the present 
county of Pottawattamie, thereafter known as Council Bluffs. The 
name has since been transferred to the county seat of the county, now 
known as the city of Council Bluffs, the present eastern terminus of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, In 1807 Iowa was organized with the 
Territory of Illinois; and in 1812 she was included in the Territory of 
Missouri. In 1821, when Missouri was admitted into the Union as a 
:State, Iowa was left, for the time being, a "political orphan," until at- 
tached to Michigan Territory, in June, 1834. During this interregnum 
it is probable that the only civil law in force in Iowa was that provision 
of the Missouri bill that prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude 
in the territories of the United States, north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, 



noi'Lh latitude; and the constitutionality even of this precious remnant 
of Lex Scripta was afterwards seriously questioned by the Supreme 
Court of the United States. 

At the close of the Blackhawk war, and on the loth of September, 
1832, General Winfield Scott concluded a treaty at the present site of 
the city of Davenport, Iowa, with the confederated tribes of Sac and 
Fox Indians, by which the Indian title was extinguished to that por- 
tion of Iowa known as the "Blackhawk Purchase." This was a strip 
of land on the west bank of the Mississippi river, the western boundary 
of which commenced at a point where is now the southeast corner of 
Davis county; thence to a point on Cedar river, near the northeast 
corner of Johnson county; thence northwest to the neutral grounds of 
the Winuebagoes, thence to the Mississippi to a point above Prairie du 
Chien, and contained about six million acres of land. By the terms 
of this treaty the Indians were to occupy the land until June 1, 1833. 

After the death of Julian Dubuque, in 1810, the Spanish lead mines 
were worked but little. In 1833 the miners from the east side of the 
Mississippi were permitted to cross the river and settle upon the land; 
but as soon as they commenced raising the mineral the United States 
put in an appearance by an agent, who assumed control of the mineral 
lands and required the miners to take out permits for limited privi- 
leges, and to deliver their ore to a licensed smelter, who paid the gov- 
ernment a royalty on the lead manufactured. These restrictions be- 
came so odious, and were so hard to enforce, that the government 
abandoned them in 1846 and put the lands into market. 

In the spring of 1836 John King purchased at Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
brought to Dubuque, a Smith press with the necessary type, and pub- 
lished a newspaper called the Dubuque Visitor. William Cary Jones 
was foreman of the office at a salary of 1350.00 a year and boarding. 
Andrew Keesicker was compositor. In 1842 this press and type 
were taken to Lancaster, Wisconsin, and on it was printed the Grant 
County Herald. Subsequently the same press was taken to St. Paul, 
Minnesota, and from it was issued the first paper printed in Minnesota 
Territory, called the St. Paul Pioneer. In 1858 the same press was 
taken to Sioux City Falls, in Dakota Territory, whereon to print the 
first newspaper published in that Territory, called the Dakota Demo- 
crat. In March, 1862, the Sioux Indians burned the town of Sioux 
City Falls, and this pioneer of American civilization perished in the 
flames. 

From 1834 to 1837 the government had a camp established at Mont- 



6 

rose, on the Mississippi, which was called Camp Des Moines. At the 
foot of the rapids was an old trading house, afterwards known as "Rat 
Row," and two or three old cabins. This was known as the point af- 
terwards named for Keokuk, the eloquent old chief of the Sac tribe. 
The first settlers here were engaged chiefly in lighting and towing 
freights over the Des Moines Rapids. 

In a treaty made with the Sac and Fox Indians in 1824, there was 
reserved for the use of the half-breeds of their tribes, in the south part 
of what was afterwaj'ds Lee county, a very valuable tract of laud con- 
taining about one hundred and thirteen thousand acres. By an act of 
Congress, approved June 13, 1834, the government released to these 
half-breeds, as tenants in common, the fee simple title to these lands. 

The treaty with the Sac and Fox Indians did not fix eitlier the 
names, number or identity of the persons to whom the reservation was 
made. Here was a chance for speculation and fraud. Half-breeds 
multiplied by means before unknown in the settlement of this coun- 
try. A company was duly incorporated to buy up half breed titles. 
The Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin, which held its session at 
Burlington, in 1838, passed a special act appointing Edward Johnston, 
Thomas S. Wilson, and David Brighara, commissioners, before whom 
claimants to the half breed tract should make proof of their titles, and 
requiring the commissioners to report their findings to the Territorial 
District Court, and authorized the court, after notice by publication, 
to enter a decree establishing titles. Before this Avork was completed, 
the next legislature, January 25, 1839, repealed the law, but in the re- 
pealing act authorized the commissioners to sue the owners of the 
half breed tract for their services. This they did, and Johnston and 
Brigham each recovered judgments against the "owners of the half- 
breed tract," by that general name and description. Executions were 
issued on these judgments, and the half-breed tract was levied upon, 
and sold at sherifi''8 sale to Hugh T. Reid. The Supreme Territorial 
Court at one time held this title to be valid, and Reid narrowly escaped 
being a great land proprietor. Meantime the Territorial Legislature 
began to encourage settlements on the half-breed tract, by legislative 
assurance to squatters, that if all other titles should fail, possession 
should be, not only nine, but ten points of the law. The very worst 
that a settler had to fear was, that his improvements should be assessed 
by a "jury of his peers," and that their value thus ascertained should 
be a lien on the land. In 1840, a suit in partition was commenced in 
the Territorial courts in the name of Josiah Spaulding and twenty -two 



others, purchasers from some of the half-breeds, against the known and 
unknown owners of shares in the " half-breed tract." Service was 
made by publication. Commissioners were appointed by the court, 
who divided the tract into 101 shares, of which forty-one were as- 
signed to the New York Company. The title under this decree of par- 
tition, after years of litigation, was finally established and quieted. In 
the meantime the question involved between the squatters and other 
claiments entered very largely into the politics of the country and the 
State; and political fortunes depended on the grave complications 
growing out of the settlement of the half-breed tract. These complica- 
tions developed a great deal of bad blood, but little of which flowed 
through the veins of the descendants of the Sac and Fox Indians. One 
of the first settlers writes: "That in the fall of 1836, when the question 
of a separate Territorial organization for Iowa was agitated, a public 
meeting was held on the claim of John Gaines, six miles west of Keokuk; 
that it was seriously thought by many who attended the meeting 
that the half-breed tract could not be included in any other organiza- 
tion, and that they contemplated starting out ' on their own hook,' and 
forming and independent government; but that after several gentlemen 
present had successively mounted the head of a whisky barrel, and ex- 
hausted their eloquence, they became convinced that the reservation was 
still within the jurisdiction of, and that they owed allegiance to, the 
Government of the United States." 

As a representative of the two races of men that at this time occu- 
pied Iowa, we notice one whose life was an episode in the history of 
each. Antoine Le Claire was born at St. Josephs, Michigan, in 1797. 
His father was French, his mother a grand-daughter of a Pottawat- 
tamie chief. In 1818 he acted as official interpreter to Col. Davenport 
at Fort Armstrong, (now Rock Island). He was well acquainted with 
a dozen Indian dialects, and was a man of strict integrity and gi*eat 
energy. In 1820 he married the grand-daughter of a Sac chief. The 
Sac and Fox Indians reserved for him_ and his wife two sections of 
land in the treaty of 1832, one at the town of Le Claix*e, and one at 
Davenport. The Pottawattamies, in their treaty at Prairie du Chieu, 
also, reserved for him two sections of land at the present site of Moline, 
Illinois. He received the appointment of postmaster and justice of 
the peace in the Black Hawk Purchase, at an early day. 

In 1833 he bought, for $100, a claim on the lands upon which the 
original town of Davenport was surveyed and platted in 1836. In 
1836 Le Claire built the hotel known since, with its valuable additions, 



as the Le Claire House. He contributed largely to the public enter- 
l)rises of the town, its churches, schoote, and ferries, and lived to see 
the village grow into a city, among the most beautiful and flourishing 
in the State. He died September 25th, 18G1. 

Before its settlement by the whites, Burlington was known as the 
Flint Hills, and was an Indian trading post under the control of the 
American Fur Company. In 1833 the settlers found here a number of 
old trading houses. In January, ]637, the town contained less than 
three hundred inhabitants. The dwellings were chiefly log, and the 
place was without church or school-house. By act of Congress, ap- 
proved April 20, 1836, which took eflfect the following 3d of July, the 
territory now comprising the States of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minne- 
sota, was organized as Wisconsin Territory. Henry Dodge was ap- 
pointed Governor. The country west of the Mississippi, known as the 
Black Hawk Purchase, was divided into two counties named Dubuque, 
and Des Moines, and at the first census, 1836, the population numbered 
10,531. The second session of the Wisconsin legislature met at Bur- 
lington, in Des Moines county, in November, 1837. At the first ses- 
sion of the Wisconsin legislature, the county of Des Moines was 
divided, and the counties of Des Moines, Lee, Van Buren, Henry, 
Muscatine, and Scott, then called Cook, were formed from it. The 
second session divided the county of Dubuque, and made of it the 
counties of Dubuque, Clayton, Fayette, Delaware, Buchanan, Jackson, 
Jones, Linn, Benton, Clinton, and Cedar. The territory of Iowa was 
organized by act of Congress, approved June 12, 1838, which took 
eff'ect on the 3d of July thereafter. The organic act provided for a 
Governor, Secretary, Chief Justice, Associate Judges, Attorney, and 
Marshal; to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate; and provided for the election, by the white 
male inhabitants, citizens of the United States over the age of twenty- 
one years, of a House of Representatives, consisting of 26 members, 
and a Council, to consist of 13 members. It gave the Governor an 
absolute veto power over the acts of the legislature, and appropriated 
$5,000 for a public library, and the sum of $20,000 for the erection of 
public buildings. Robert Lucas, formerly Governor of Ohio, was 
appointed Governor; AVilliam B. Conway, Secretary; Charles Mason, 
Chief Justice, and Josepli Williams and Thomas S. Wilson, Judges. 
Burlington was selected as the temporary seat of government, and the 
first Territorial legislature was convened November 12, 1838. "Wm. 
H. Wallace, of Henry county, was chosen Speaker, and Jesse B. Brown, 



9 

of Lee county, President of the Council. Among tlie members from 
Dubuque county was Stepehen Hempstead, afterwards Governor of 
the State. Another name appears in the list of members from Des 
Moines county, at the mention of which every patriotic heart in our 
State throbs with pride. The record reads: 

"James W. Grimes, age 22 years, occupation, lawyer; nativity. New 
Hampshire." This session of the legislature was a strong one. Gov- 
ernor Lucas seemed disposed to make the most of his veto power, and 
the Hawkeye could tolerate absolute rule with a poor grace. By acts 
approved March 3d, 1839, Congress amended the organic act and lim- 
ited the veto power of the Governor to the two-thirds rule, and took 
from him also the power of appointing sheriffs and magistrates, which 
had been conferred by the organic act. The first Territorial Legisla- 
ture selected Johnson county for the location of the future Capital. 
The treaty of September 2l8t had reserved to the use of the Indians 
four hundred sections of land on the Iowa river, including the Indian 
village of the chief, Keokuk. In September, 1836, this reserve was ceded 
to the United States, and the Indians removed. to the valley of the Des 
Moines. In the fall of 1837 the general government called to Wash- 
ington a deputation of Indian tribes of the Northwest, for the purpose 
of securing peace among them. The Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes 
were in open hostility at this time. At this convention peace was re- 
stored among these tribes, and the government also secured a treaty 
with the Sac and Fox Indians, by which it obtained a tract of land, 
west of the " Black Hawk Purchase," containing one million two hun- 
dred and fiity thousand acres. The first settlement in Johnson county 
was made in 1837, The county was organized in 1838, In May, 1839, 
a section of land was selected on the Iowa river for the future seat of 
government, and in June, 1839, Iowa City was surveyed, and the hazel 
brush and scrub oak were grubbed from her streets. In 1840 the 
building for the capitol was commenced, but it was not occupied for 
public use until December, 1842. The Legislature met for the first 
time at Iowa City, in December, 1841. In 1841 John Chambers suc- 
ceeded Robert Lucas as Territorial Governor. 

In defining the boundaries of the counties on the southern border, 
the authorities for Iowa had fixed a line, that has since been estab- 
lished as the true boundary between Iowa and Missouri. The consti- 
tution of Missouri defined her northern boundary to be the parallel of 
latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines. 

The lower rapids of the Mississippi, which are immediately above the 
2 



10 

mouth of the Des Moines river, had always been known as the Des 
Moines Rapids, or the rapids of the Des Moines river. The Missouri- 
ans (not well versed ifl history or geography) found rapids in the Des 
Moines river just below the town of Keosauqua, and insisted on run- 
ning a line west from that point for their northern boundary; thus 
taking from Iowa a strip of country eight to ten miles in width. Mis- 
souri attempted to assert her jurisdiction over this disputed territory, 
by assessing taxes and sending her sheriifs to enforce them by dis- 
training the personal chatties of the settlers. Whereupon the sheriffs 
of Van Buren and Davis counties arrested the Missouri officers, and 
put them in "durance vile." Governor Boggs, of Missouri, called out 
the militia of his State to enforce the claims of Missouri, and sustain its 
officers. Governor Lucas called out the militia of Iowa. About 1200 
men were enlisted, and 500 were actually armed and encamped in Van 
Buren county, ready to maintain the issue on our part. Subsequently 
Gen. A. C. Dodge, of Burlington, Gen. Churchman, of Dubuque, and 
Dr. Clark, of Ft. Madison, were sent as peace commissioners to Mis- 
souri to adjust difficulties. When they arrived in the enemy's country, 
they found that the county commissioners of Clarke county, Missouri, 
had rescinded the order for the collection of taxes, and the Governor 
of Missouri had sent messengers to the Governor of Iowa, proposing 
to submit an agreed case to the Supreme Court of the United States 
for the settlement of the boundary question. This proposition was 
declined; but afterwards, upon petition of Iowa and Missouri, Con- 
gress authorized a suit to settle the controversy. The suit was after- 
wards duly instituted, and resulted in the determination that Iow\a had 
only asserted "the truth of history," and that she knew where the 
rapids of the river Des Moines were located. Thus ended the Mis- 
souri war. There was much good sense in the basis upon which peace 
was secui-ed, to-wit: "If Missourians did not know where the rapids 
of the river Des Moines were located, that was no sufficient reason for 
killing them off with powder and lead; and if we did know a little 
more of history and geography than they did, we ought not to be shot 
for our learning. We commend our mutual forbearance to older and 
greater "peoples." 

Under an order from the Supreme Court of the United States, Wil- 
liam G. Miner, of Missouri, and Henry B. Hendershott, of Iowa, acted 
as commissioners and surveyed and established the boundary. The 
expenses of the war on the part of Iowa were never paid, either by 
the United States or the Territorial government. The patriots who 



11 

furnished supplies to the troops had to bear the cost and charges of the 
struggle. 

In obedience to our progressive and aggressive spirit, the govern- 
ment of the United States made another treaty with the Sac and Fox 
Indians on the 11th day of August, 1842, for the remaining portion of 
their lands in Iowa. The treaty provided that the Indians shuuld re- 
tain possession of all the lands thus ceded until May 1, 1843, and 
should occupy that portion of the ceded territory west of a line run- 
ning north and south through Redrock until October 11, 1845. These 
tribes at this time had their principal village at Ottumwah-no, now 
called Ottumwa. As soon as it became known that the treaty had been 
concluded, there was a rush of immigration to Iowa, and a great num- 
ber of temporary settlements were made near the Indian boundary, 
waiting for the first day of May. As the day approached hundreds of 
families encamped along the line, and their tents and wagons gave the 
scene the appearance of a military expedition. The country beyond 
had been thoroughly explored, but the United States military authori- 
ties had prevented any settlement, or even the marking out of claims 
by any monuments whatever. To aid them in marking out their 
claims, when the hour should arrive, the settlers had placed piles of 
dry wood on the rising ground at convenient distances, and a short 
time before twelve o'clock of the night of the 30th of April, these 
were lighted, and when the midnight hour arrived it was announced 
by the discharge of firearms. The night was dark, but this army of 
occupation pressed forward, torch in hand, with axe and hatchet blazing 
lines with all manner of corners and angles. When daylight came 
and revealed the confusion of these wonderful surveys, numerous dis- 
putes arose, settled generally by compromise, but sometimes by vio- 
lence. Between midnight of the 30th of April and sundown of the 
fiist of May, over one thousand families had settled in this new 
purchase. While this scene was transpiring the retreating Indian was 
enacting one more impressive and melancholy. The winter of 1842-3 
was one of unusual severity, and the Indian prophet, who had disap- 
proved of the treaty, attributed the severity of the winter to the unger 
of the Great Spirit because they had sold their country. Many relig- 
ious rites were performed to atone for the crime. When the time for 
leaving Ottumwah-no arrived, a solemn silence pervaded the Indian 
camp, and the faces of their stoutest men were bathed in tears; and 
when their cavalcade was put in motion, toward the setting sun, there 
was a spontaneous outburst of frantic greaf Irom the entire procession. 



12 

The Indians remained tlie appointed lime beyond the line running 
north and south through Redrock. The government established a 
trading post and military encampment at the Kiccoon Fork of the Des 
Moines river, then and for many years known as Fort Des Moines. 
Here the red man lingered until the 11th of October, 1845, when the 
same scene that we have before described was re-enacted, and the wave 
of immigration swept over the i-emainder of the "New Purchase." 
The lands thus occupied and claimed by the settlers still belonged in 
fee to the general government. The surveys were not completed until 
some titne after the Indian title was extinguished. After their survey 
the lands were publicly proclaimed or advertised for sale at public auc- 
tion. Under the laws of the United States a pre-emption or exclusive 
right to purchase public lands could not be acquired until after the 
lands had thus been publicly offered and not sold for want of bidders. 
Then, and not until then, an occupant making improvements in good 
faith, might acquire a right over others to enter the land at the mini 
mum price of $1.25 per acre. The "claim laws'' were unknown to 
the United States statutes. They originated in the " eternal fitness of 
things," and were enforced, probably, as belonging to that class of 
natural rights not enumerated in the constitution, and not impaired or 
disparaged by its enumeration. 

The settlers organized in every settlement prior to the public land 
sales, appointed officers, and adopted their own rules and regulations. 
Each man's claim was duly ascertained and recorded by the secretary. 
It was the duty of all to attend the sales. The secretary bid off the 
lands of each settler at $1.25 per acre. The others were there, to see, 
first, that he did his duty, and bid in the land, and, sec- 
ondly, to see that no one else bid. This, of course, sometimes 
led to trouble, but it saved the excitement of competition, and 
gave a formality and degree of order and regularity to the 
proceedings they would not otherwise have attained. As far 
as practicable the Territorial legislature recognized the validity of these 
"claims" upon the public lands, and in 1839 passed an act legalizing 
their sale and making their transfer a valid consideration to support a 
promise to pay for the same. (Acts of 1843, p. 456.J The Supreme 
Territorial Court held this law to be valid. (See Hill v. Smith, 1st 
Morris Rep. 70.) The opinion not only contains a decision of the 
question involved, but also contains much valuable erudition upon that 
" spirit of Anglo-Saxon liberty" which the Iowa settlers unquestiona- 
bly inherited in a direct line of descent from the said " Anglo-Saxons." 



13 

But the early settler was not always able to pay even this dollar and 
twenty-five cents per acre for his land. 

The financial troubles of 1837, that had paralyzed business and 
spread financial ruin over the older States, drove many families into the 
wilderness to bep^in anew the business of life. Many had nothing to 
begin with, save their health and courage, and those family jewels that 
are the " pledges of love" and the "consumers of bread." Follow- 
ing in the wake of the settler was the army of money usurers, who 
stood ready to take advantage of his necessities. The legislature of 
1843 fixed ten per cent, as the legal rate of interest for which parties 
might contract. But it was only too easy to evade the law. There 
was nothing in the law to compel the usurer to loan his money at ten 
per cent., nor was there anything to prevent his entering the land by 
consent of the settler, with an agreement to convey it, upon the pay- 
ment of an amount equal to the entrance money and forty per cent. 
Neither was it easy for the settler to earn the money to redeem his 
land. However fertile the soil, or however industrious the toiler, yet 
without a market for his produce it was hard to accumulate money. It 
was not until many years of patient toil and the severest economy, 
that-some of our best citizens could call their farms their own, and rid 
themselves of the exactions of the usurer. One of the old settlers 
describing those early days, writes as follows: 

"Well do the 'old settlers' of Iowa remember the days from the first 
settlement to 1840. Those were days of sadness and distress. The 
endearments of home in another land had been broken up ; and all 
that was hallowed on earth, the home of childhood and the scenes of 
youth were severed, and we sat down by the gentle waters of our no- 
ble river; and often 'hung our harps on the willows.' " Another from 
a diflTereut section of the State writes: 

"There was no such thing as getting money for any kind of labor. 
I laid brick at three dollars per thousand, and took my pay in anything 
I could eat or wear. I built the first Methodist Church at Keokuk, 42 
x60 feet of brick, for six hundred dollars, and took my pay in a sub- 
scription paper, part of which I never collected, and upon which I only 
received $50 in money. Wheat was hauled 100 miles from the inte- 
rior and sold for 31^ cents per bushel." And still another old settler 
writes of a later period, 1843: 

"Land and everything had gone down in value to almost nominal 
prices. Corn and oats could be bought for six or ten cents a bushel; 
pork one dollar per hundred; and the best horse a man could raise sold 



14 

for fifty dollars. Nearly all were in debt, and the sheriff and consta- 
ble, with legal process, were common visitors at almost every man's 
door. These were indeed Hhe times that tried men's souls.'" A few, 
who were not equal to the trial, returned to their old homes, but such 
as had the courage and faith to be the worthy founders of a great State, 
remained to more than realize the fruition of their hopes, and the re- 
ward of their self-denial. 

At the close of the Blackhawk war, the Winnebago Indians ceded 
to the United States their lands in Wisconsin, and removed west of 
the Mississippi to a strip of land extending twenty miles on each side 
of the upper Iowa river, which strip of country had been obtained by 
the United States for this purpose by treaty with the Sac and Fox and 
Sioux tribes. On the 13th of October, 1846, the Winnebagos relin- 
quished this reservation and removed to the upper Mississippi, north 
of the St. Peter's river. 

By treaty of 1830, the United States had also obtained a cession of 
the southwestern part of Iowa as a reservation for the Pottawattamie 
Indians. In June, 1846, this reservation was relinquished, and these 
Indians removed west of the Missouri river. Brigham Young, with his 
Mormon followers, made his exit from Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846, and 
made his headquarters in Pottawattamie county, Iowa, in the winter of 
1846-Y. They built the town of Kainsville, since the city of Council 
Bluffs, This peculiar people, zealous in many things besides good 
works, remained in the southwestern part of the State, and controlled 
its local affairs, until 1852. The census of 1850 shows over six thou- 
sand Mormans in this portion of the State at that date. In 1852 the 
final order came for the Saints to assemble about their temple in Utah, 
wherefore the Gentiles rejoiced. The Mormons sold out their improve- 
ments at a great sacrifice. A good farm claim was bought for a few 
hundred dollars, or a span of horses and a wagon. From this time for- 
ward the "Slope" began to attract attention, and settlement pro- 
gressed rapidly. The Sioux Indians, who were the most treacherous 
and cruel of the northwestern tribes, continued to occupy the north- 
western portion of the State until 1853. They sold their lands by 
treaty, July 23, 1851, and were to surrender possession two years there- 
after. A land office was established at the present site of Sioux City 
in October, 1855, and by the first of December, 1856, a hundred neat 
and comfortable dwellings had been erected. This formed a nucleus 
of settlement in the northwest of Iowa. 

We return now to our political history. The Territorial Legislature 



15 

held its eighth and last session at Iowa City, commencing December 
1, 1845. James Clark was the same year appointed the successor of 
Governor Chambers, and was the third and last Territorial Governor. 
In 1843 the Territorial Legislature compiled and published a code of 
general statutes, making a volume of 800 pages, that continued in 
force until July, 1851. During our Territorial existence we were rep- 
resented in Congress by William C. Chapman and Augustus Ca3sar 
Dodge. Our first constitutional convention was held at Iowa City in 
October, 1844, but its work was rejected by the people by a majority of 
421 votes. A second convention convened at the same place on the 
4th of May 1846, and completed its work on the 19th of the same 
month. This constitution was adopted by the people in August of the 
same year, and on the following 28th of December, Iowa became a 
sovereign State of the Republic. The United States by ordinance of 
compact at the time of her admission, gave to Iowa the 16th section of 
every township of land in the State, or its equivalent, for the support 
of schools, also seventy-two sections of land for the purpose of a 
university; also five sections of land for the completion of her public 
buildings; also the salt springs within her limits, not exceeding twelve 
in number, with six sections of land adjoining each; also, in considera- 
tion that her public lands should be exempt from taxation by the 
State, she gave to the State 5 per cent, of the net proceeds of the sale 
of public lands within the State. Thus provided for as a bride with 
her marriage portion, Iowa commenced "house-keeping" upon her own 
account. A majority of the Constitutional Convention of 1846, were 
of the Democratic party; and the instrument contains some of the 
peculiar tenets of the party at that day. All banks of issue were pro- 
hibited within the State. The State was prohibited from becoming a 
stock-holder in any corporation for pecuniary profit, and the General 
Assembly could only provide for private corporations by general 
statutes. The Constitution also limited the State's indebtedness to one 
hundred thousand dollars. It required the General Assembly to pro- 
vide public schools throughout the State for at least three months in 
the year. Six months previous residence of any white male citizen of 
the United States constituted him an elector. 

The government was started on an economical basis. The members 
of the General Assembly received each two dollars per day for the 
first fifty days of the session, and one dollar per day thereafter. The 
sessions were to be biennial. The salaries of the State officers were 
limited for the first ten years as follows: Governor, $1,000 per annum; 



16 

Secretary of State, $500; Treasurer of State, |400; Auditor of State, 
$600; and Judges of the Supreme Court, $1,000 each. And it may 
here be recorded as a fact that these prices did not discourage the best 
talent of the State from seeking these positions, and that during this 
ten years of our history none of these officers were ever known to re- 
ceive bribes, or to steal one dollar of the public money. At the time 
of our organization as a State, we had a population of 116,651, as ap- 
pears by the census of 184'7. 

Ansel Briggs, of Jackson county, was elected our first Governor, 
and the first General Assembly met at Iowa City, November 30, 1846. 
The most important business transacted was the passage of a bill au- 
thorizing a loan of fifty thousand dollars for means to run the State 
government and pay the expenses of the constitutional conventions' 
The great excitement of the session was the attempt to choose United 
States Senators. The Whigs had a majority of two in the House, and 
the Democrats a majority of one in the Senate. After repeated at- 
tempts to control these majorities for caucus nominees, and frequent 
sessions of a joint convention for purposes of an election, the attempt 
was abandoned. A school law was passed at this session for the or- 
ganization of public schools in the State. 

In pursuance of its provisions, an election for Superintendent of 
Public Instruction was held the spring following, and James Harlan 
received a majority of the votes cast. After the election, the Demo- 
cratic Secretary of State discovered that the law contained no provis- 
ion for its publication in the newspapers, and he claimed it had not 
gone into eftect, and he, with the Governor, refused Harlan a certifi- 
cate of election. The Supreme Court sustained their action. After 
the adjournment of the General Assembly the Governor appointed Jo- 
seph Williams Chief Justice and George Green and John F. Kinney 
Judges of the Supreme Court. They were afterwards elected by the 
second General Assembly, and constituted the Supreme Court until 
1855, with the exception that Kinney resigned in January, 1854, and J. 
C. Hall, of Burlington, was appointed in his place. Hall was one of 
the earliest and ablest lawyers of the State, and his memory will long 
be cherished by the early members of the profession. Some changes 
having occurred by death and removal, the Governor was induced to 
call an exti*a session of the General Assembly in January, 1848, with 
the hope of an election of United States Senators, The attempt, how- 
ever, was again unsuccessful. At this session Charles Mason, AVilliam 
G. Woodward, and Stephen Hempstead were appointed commissioners 



17 

to prepare a code of laws for the State. Their work was finished in 
1850, and was adopted by the General Assembly. This "Code" con- 
tained amon^ other provisions a Code of Civil Practice, superseding 
the old common law forms of actions and writs, and it was admirable 
for its simplicity and method. It remained in force iintil 1863, when 
it was superseded by the more complicated and metaphysical system 
of the revision of that year. 

Our first representatives in Congress were S. Clinton Hastings of 
Muscatine, and Shepard Lefler of Des Moines county. The Second 
General Assembly elected to the United States Senate Augustus 
Csisar Dodge and Geo. W. Jones. The State government, after its 
first session, was under the control of Democratic administrations till 
1855. The electoral vote of the State was cast for Lewis Cass in 1848, 
and for Franklin Pierce in 1852. The popular vote shows that the 
free-soil element of the State during this period very nearly held the 
balance of power, and that up to 1854 it acted in the State elections, 
to some extent, with the Democratic party. In 1 848, Lewis Cass re- 
ceived 12,093 votes, Zachary Taylor 11,034, and Martin Van Buren, 
the Free Soil candidate, 1226 votes, being 167 votes less than a major- 
ity for Cass. In 1852, Pierce received 17,762 votes, and Scott 15,855 
votes, and Hale, Free-Soil, received 1,606, being for Pierce 301 votes 
more than a majority. 

From 1858 to 1860 the Sioux Indians became troublesome in the 
northwestern part of the State. They made frequent raids for the pur- 
pose of plunder, and on several occasions murdered whole families of 
settlers. In 1861 several companies of militia were ordered to that 
portion of the State, to hunt down and expel the thieves. No battles 
were fought. The Indians fled as soon as they ascertained that sys- 
tematic measures had been adopted for their punishment. 

The passage by the Congress of the United States of the act organ- 
izing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and the provision it 
contained abrogating that portion of the Missouri bill that prohibited 
slavery and involuntary servitude north of 36 degrees and 30 minutes 
of north latitude, was the beginning of a political revolution in the 
Northern States, and in none was it more marked than in the State of 
Iowa. Iowa was the " first free child born of the Mis^souri compro- 
mise," and always has she resented the destruction of her foster 
parent. In the summer of 1854, there was a tacit coalition or union of 
the Whig and Free-Soil elements of the State. Alarmed at the ag- 
gressive spirit manifested by the adherents of the peculiar institution, 



18 

tlie "Free-Soilers," who almost held the balance of power in the State, 
readily adopted as their candidate the Whig nominee for Governor. 
Many of the old line Whigs abandoned their party because of this 
coalition, but many strong and able- men among the Democrats co- 
operated with it. James W. Grimes was the nominee of the Whig, 
and Curtis Bates, of Polk County, was the nominee of the Democratic 
party. Grimes was then in the vigor of his manhood, and all the 
energies of his being appeared to be aroused by what he denominated 
the aggressions of the slave power. He was thoroughly in earnest, 
and canvassed most of the organized counties of the State. The 
people flocked by the thousands to hear him, and M^ere electrified by 
his eloquence. No one of the opposition attempted to meet him in 
debate. The result was his election by a majority of 1,404, in a vote 
of 21,794. A majority was also secured in the General Assembly on 
joint ballot of the two houses in opposition to the Democratic party. 
The Senate excluded Jordan of Polk, and retained a Democrat, who 
wrongfully held a certificate of election, until after the Senatorial con- 
test. Browning, of Des Moines county, formerly elected as a Whig, 
acted with the Democrats in the session of 1854-5, and by these 
means the Democrats held a majority of one in the Senate and con- 
trolled its action. The Republican party was not organized in Iowa 
until 1856. The opposition to the Democracy in 1854-5 were known 
as Anti-Nebraiska Whigs. A caucus of this opposing element nom- 
inated James Rarlan as their candidate for United States Senator, Geo. 
G. Wright tor Chief Justice, and Norman W. Isbell and Wm. G. 
Woodward for Judges of the Supreme Court. A portion of the op- 
position, however, refused to go into this caucus, or to abide by its de- 
cision as to the United States Senator. They were the personal 
friends of Ebenezer Cook, of Scott county. A joint convention was 
secured, and the Judges of the Supreme Court were elected. After 
frequent ballotings and adjournments, it was at last understood that 
Cook's friends had yielded, and would support Mr. Harlan. When 
the hour arrived to wliich the joint convention had adjourned, messen- 
gers were sent to the Senate by the House to inform that body that the 
House was ready to meet them in joint convention. Before this mess- 
age could be delivered, the Senate had adjourned over until the next 
day. The Anti-Nebraska Senators, however, entered the hall of the 
House and took their seats in joint convention. Much confusion pre- 
vailed, but finally a President pro tern, of the convention was chosen, 
and Mr. Harlan was elected. His seat was contested, and his election 



19 

declared invalid by the United States Senate. At the next session of 
the General Assembly, held in 1857, Mr. Harlan was re-elected and was 
permitted to take his seat. At the regular session in 1854-5 an act 
was passed for the relocation of the Capital of the State at Des 
Moines. 

The year 1856 marked a new ei-a in the history of Iowa. In 1854 
the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad had been completed to the east 
bank of the Mississippi river, opposite Davenport. In 1854, the corner- 
stone of a railroad bridge, that was to be the tirst to span the "Father 
of Waters," was laid with appropriate <jeremonies at this point. St. 
Louis had resolved that the enterprise was unconstitutional, and by 
writs of injunction made an unsuccessful effort to prevent its comple- 
tion. Twenty years later in her history, St. Louis repented her folly, 
and made atonement for her sin by imitating our example. On the first 
of January, 1856, this railroad Was completed to Iowa City. In the 
meantime two other railroads had reached the east bank of the Missis- 
sippi — one opposite Burlington and one opposite Dubuque — and these 
were being extended into the interior of the State. Indeed, four lines 
of railroad had been projected across the State from the Mississijjpi to 
the Missouri, having eastern connections. On the 15th of May, 1856, 
the Congress of the United States passed an act granting to the State, 
to aid in the construction of railroads, the public lands in alternate 
sections, six miles on either side of the proposed lines. An extra ses- 
sion of the General Assembly was called in July of this year, that dis- 
posed of the grant to the several companies that proposed to complete 
these enterprises. The population of our State at this time had in- 
creased to 5U0,000. Public attention had been called to the necessity 
of a railroad across the continent. The position of Iowa, in the very 
heart and center of the Republic, on the route of this great highway 
of the continent, began to attract attention. Cities and towns sprung 
up through the State as if by magic. Capital began to pour into the 
State, and had it been employed in developing our vast coal measures 
and establishing manufactories among us, or if it had been expended 
in improving our lands and building houses and barns, it would have 
been well. But all were in haste to get rich, and the spirit of specula 
tion ruled the hour. 

In the meantime every effort was made to help the speedy completion 
of the railroads. Nearly every county and city on the Mississippi, and 
many in the interior, voted large corporate subscriptions to the stock 
of the railroad companies, and issued their negotiable bonds for the 



9.0 

amount, Thus enormous county and city debts were incurred, the 
payment of which these municipalities tried to avoid upon the plea 
that they had exceeded the constitutional limitation of their powers. 
The Supreme Court of the United States held these bonds to be valid; 
and the courts by mandamus compelled the city and county authorities 
to levy taxes to pay the judgments recovered upon them. These debts 
are not all paid, even to this day; but the worst is over, and the incubus 
is in the course of ultimate extinction. The most valuable lessons are 
those learned in the school of experience. In 1846 (Jongressmadea 
grant to the State of the alternate sections of land five miles in width on 
each side of the Des Moines river, for the improvement thereof by means 
of slack water from the mouth to the Raccoon Forks, In 1847 the 
State organized a jBoard of Public Works, and proceeded to sell the 
lands and let contracts for the building of locks and dams. In 1854 
but little real progress had been made in the work, but the State had 
sold nearly ail the lands of the grant below the Raccoon Fork, and 
58,000 acres above it, and had incurred an indebtedness of $70,000 
over and above the proceeds of sales. 

In June, 1854, a Board of State Commisioners contracted with the 
Des Moines Navigation and Railroad Company, an organization com- 
posed principally of New York capitalists, to undertake the work and 
pay off the debt, agreeing to convey to the company lands at $1.25 an 
acre for all moneys advanced and expended. In the meantime difficul- 
ties arose in regard to the extent of the grant. The State claimed 
lands throughout the whole extent of the river to the north line of the 
State. The Department of the Interior changed its rulings under the 
several administrations. The Commissioner of the General Land 
Office certified to the State about 320,000 acres of land below the Rac- 
coon fork of the river, and about 270,000 acres above it prior to 1857, 
when he refused to certify any more. This led to a settlement and 
compromise with the Navigation Company, in 1858, whereby the com- 
pany took all the land certified to the State at that date, and paid the 
State $20,000 in addition to what they had already expended, canceled 
their contract and abandoned the work. The General Assembly 
granted to the Des Moines Valley R. R Co. the remainder of the grant 
to the State line, to aid in building a railroad up and along the Des 
Moines valley; and Congress in 18(32 extended the grant, by express 
enactment, to the north line of the State. One of the most injurious 
results to the State, arising from the spirit of speculation prevalent in 
1856, was the purchase and entry of great bodies of government laud 



21 

within the State by non-resident?. This land was held for speculation 
and placed beyond the reach of actual settlers for many years. From 
no other one cause has Iowa sutfered so much as from the short-sighted 
policy of the Federal Government in selling lands within her borders. 
The money thus obtained by the Federal Government has been com- 
paratively inconsiderable. The value of this magnificent public do- 
main to the United Slates was not in the few thousands of dollars she 
might exact from the hardy settlers, or that she might obtain from the 
speculator who hoped to profit by the settler's labors in improving the 
country. Statesmen should have taken a broader and more compre- 
hensive view of national economy, and a view more in harmony with 
the divine economy that had prepared these vast fertile plains of the 
West for the "homes of men and the seats of empire." It was here 
that new States were to be builded up, that should be the future 
strength of the nation against foreign invasion or home revolt. A 
single regiment of Iowa soldiers during the dark days of the re- 
bellion was worth more to the nation than all the money she ever ex- 
acted from the toil and sweat of our early settlers. Could the states- 
men of forty years ago have looked forward to this day, when Iowa 
pays her $1,000,000 annually into the treasury of the nation for the 
extinction of the national debt, they would have realized that the 
founding of new States was a greater enterprise than the retailing of 
public lands. Fortunately the financial crash of 1857 put an end to 
this spirit of speculation. 

In 1856 the Republican party of the State was duly organized, in 
full sympathy with that of the other free States, and at the ensuing 
Presidential election the electoral vote of the State was cast for John 
C, Fremont. The popular vote was as follows: 

Fremont 43,954 

Buchanan 36,170 

Fillmore 9,180 

In January, 1857, a Constitutional Convention was convened at Iowa 
City, which framed our present State Constitution. One of the most 
pressing demands for this convention grew out of the prohibition of 
banks under the old Constitution, The practical result of this prohi- 
bition was to flood the State with every species of " wild-cat" currency. 
Our circulating medium was made up in part of the free bank paper of 
Illinois and Indiana. In addition to this, we had paper issued by Iowa 
brokers, who had obtained bank charters from the Territorial Legisla- 
ture of Nebraska, and had their pretended headquarters at Omaha and 



Florence. Our currency was also well assorted with the bills from 
other States, generally such as had the best reputation where they 
were least known. This paper was all at two, and some of it from 10 
to 15 per cent, discount. Every man who was not an expert in de- 
tecting counterfeit bills, and who was not posted in the history of all 
manner of banking institutions, did business at his peril. The new 
Constitution made ample provision for home banks under the super- 
vision of our own laws. The limitation of our State debt was enlarged 
to 1250,000, and the corporate indebtedness of the cities and counties 
were also limited to five per cent, upon the valuation of their taxable 
property. The Judges of the Supreme Court were to be elected by the 
popular vote. The permanent seat of government was fixed at Des 
Moines, and the State University located at Iowa City. The qualifica- 
tions of electors remained the same as under the old Constitution, but 
the schedule provided for a vote of the people upon a separate propo- 
sition to strike the word " white" out of the sulfrage clause, which, 
had it prevailed, would have resulted in conferring the right of suf- 
frage without distinction of color. Since the early organization of 
Iowa there had been upon the statute books a law providing that no 
negro, mulatto, or Indian should be a competent witness in any suit or 
proceedings to which a white man was a party. The General Assem- 
bly of 1856-7 repealed this law, and the new Constitution contained a 
clause forbidding such disqualification in the future. It also provided 
for the education of " all youth of the State" through a system of 
common schools. In the Presidential election of 1856 the Republican 
candidate had received 1,296 votes less than a majority of the popular 
vote of the State, This gave the Democrats strong hopes of carrying 
the election in 1857. Their nominee for Governor was Ben M. Sam- 
uels, of Dubuque, a Virginian by birth and education, and an earnest 
and impressive speaker. The Republican nominee was Ralph P. 
Lowe, of Lee county. 

The Democrats made a bold attack upon the Republican party be- 
cause of their repeal of the black laws, and their provision for negro 
education; and made a strong appeal to the caste prejudice still pre- 
vailing in the State, especially among the Fillmore men, who now con- 
stituted the floating vote. The result was, however, a success for the 
Republican party. Lowe was elected by a majority of 1,406 and a plu- 
rality of 2,410, and the legislature was largely Republican in both 
branches. The vote on the new constitution was 40,311 votes for and 
38j68l against it. In January, 1858, the General Assembly met for the 



23 

first time at Des Moines, in a temporary building, furnished for the 
purpose by the Capitol Building Association, composed of a number 
of enterprising citizens, who borrowed from James D. Eads, State Su- 
perintendent of Public Instruction, the money wherewith to build the 
house, and afterward sold the building to the State in consideration of 
a release of the debt. At this session of the General Assembly, James 
W. Giimes was elected U. S. Senator as successor to George W.Jones. 
When the Republican administration came into power, it found the 
State with the inconsiderable debt of |50,000, borrowed at the organ- 
ization of the State government. The Democratic administrations had 
observed the most rigid economy, but had only economized. With a 
population of nearly half a million, we had no provision for the in- 
sane, the deaf and dumb, or the blind. Temporary schools for the lat- 
ter had been provided; but save the old State House at Iowa City, and 
a very inadequate penitentiary at Ft. Madison, the State was without 
public buildings. In 1856 and 1858 large appropriations were made 
for the erection of public buildings, and the support of the unfortunate 
classes, and a loan of |2CO,000 was authorized. In 1859 the Republi- 
cans nominated for Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood, and the Democrats 
selected as their candidate, Augustus Caesar Dodge, then just returned 
home from a mission to Spain. The contest was a spirited one. la 
addition to the slavery question, the charge of extravagance was made 
against the Republican State administration; and the size and extent 
of the insane asylum at Mt. Pleasant was made a specialty by Demo- 
cratic speakers. The result was the election of Kirkwood by a major- 
ity 2,mi votes. 

The Presidential campaign of 1860 was the most remarkable and 
exciting of any in our history as a State. The fact that civil war might 
be inaugurated and was threatened, in case Mr. Lincoln was elected, 
was well understood and duly considered. The people of Iowa in- 
dulged in no feelings of hatred or iil-wili toward the people of any 
State or section of the Union. There was, however, on the part of the 
majority, a cool determination to consider and decide upon our national 
relatione to this institution of slavery, uninfluenced by any threat of 
violence or civil war. 

The popular vote of Iowa in I860 gave Mr. Lincoln 70,409 votes to 
Stephen A. Douglas 55,011, to Breckenridge 1,048, 

The General Assembly of the State of Iowa, as early as 1851, had 
by joint resolution declared that the State of Iowa was "bound to 
maintain the Union of these States by all the means in her power." 



24 

The same year the State furnished a block of marble for the Washing- 
ton Monument at the National Capital, and by order of the General 
Assembly there was inscribed upon its enduring surface the fojlowing: 
"Iowa — Her affections, like the rivers of her borders, flow to an In- 
separable Union." The day was now approaching in her history when 
these declarations of attachment and fidelity to the Nation were to be 
put to a practical test. 

Certainly the people of no State in the nation could be more vitally 
interested in the question of our national unity than the people of our 
State. The older States of the Union, both North and South, were rep- 
resented in our population. We were nearly all emigrants, bound to 
these older communities by the most sacred ties of blood, and most, 
endearing recollections of our early days. In addition to these con- 
siderations of a personal character, there were others of the gravest 
political importance. Our geographical position as a State, made the 
dismemberment of the Union a matter of serious concern. The Mis- 
sissippi had been for years our highway to the markets of the world. 
We could not entertain the thought that its navigation should pass un- 
der the control of a foreign government. But more than this, we had 
to fear the consequences of introducing and recognizing in our na- 
tional system the principle of secession or disintegration. If this 
should be recognized as a right, what security had the States of the 
interior against their entire issoiation from the commerce of the world 
by the future secession of the Atlantic and Pacific States. And the 
fact also remained, that secession or separation removed none of the 
causes of the war. Whatever there was in the peculiar institution that 
created differences of sentiment, or feeling, or caused irritation, »till ex- 
isted after the separation^ with no court or constitution as the arbiter 
of rights, and with the one resort, only, of the sword to settle differen- 
ces. In secession and its logical and necessary results, we saw nothing 
but dire confusion and anarchy, and the utter destruction of that na- 
tionality, through wiiich alone we felt that our civil liberties as a peo- 
ple could be preserved, and the hopes of our Christian civilization per- 
petuated. The declaration of Mr. Buchanan's last annual message, that 
the nation possessed no constitutional power to coerce a seceding State, 
was received by the great majority of our citizens with humiliation and 
with distrust. Anxiously they awaited ihe expiring hours of his admin- 
istration, and looked to the incoming President as to an expected deliv- 
erer, that should rescue the nation from the hands of traitors, and the 
control of those whose non-resistance invited her destruction. The 



25 

firing upon the National flag at Sumpter aroused a burning indigna- 
tion throughout the loyal States of the Republic, and no where was it 
more intense than in Iowa. And when the proclamation of the Presi- 
dent was published, on the 15th day of April, 1861, calling for Y5,000 
citizen soldiers, to "maintain the honor, the integrity, and the exis- 
tence of our national Union and the perpetuity of popular govern- 
ment," we were more than willing to respond to the call. Party lines 
gave way, and, for awhile at least, party spirit was hushed ; and the 
cause of our common country was supreme in the affections of the 
people. Peculiarly fortunate were the people of Iowa at this crisis, in 
having a truly representative man as Executive of the State. Thor- 
oughly honest and thoroughly earnest, wholly imbued with the enthu- 
siasm of the hour, fully aroused to the importance of the crisis, and 
the magnitude of the struggle upon which we were entering, with an 
indomitable will under the control of a strong common sense; our war 
Governor, Samuel J. Kirkwood, was indeed a worthy chief to organ- 
ize and direct the energies of our people. Within thirty days after the 
date of the President's call for troops, the First Iowa Regiment was 
mustered into the service of the United States — a second regiment was 
in camp ready for the service; and the General Assembly of the State 
was convened in special session, and had by joint resolution solemnly 
pledged our every resource of men and money to the national cause. 

The Constitution of our State limited the State debt to 1250,000, 
except debts contracted to "repel invasion, suppress insurrection, or de- 
fend the State in war." The General Assembly authorized a loan of 
$800,000 for a war and defense fund, to be expended in organizing, 
arming, equipping, and subsisting the militia of the State to meet the 
present and future requisitions of the President. Those in power look- 
ed to the spirit rather tlian to the letter of the constitution; and acted 
upon the theory that to preserve the Nation was to preserve the State, 
and that to prevent invasion was the most effectual means of " repel- 
ling " it. A few, however, in both branches of the General Assembly, 
were more careful of the letter of the Constitution. Three votes in 
the Senate and seventeen in the House were cast against the loan bill. 
These bonds were at seven per cent, interest. Only |300,000 were 
ever issued, and they were purchased and held chiefly by our own citi- 
zens. We had at this crisis James W. Grimes and James Harlan in 
the United States Senate, and General Samuel R. Curtis, and General 
Vandever to represent us in the House of Representatives. During 
the first year of the war, Iowa furnished sixteen regiments of infantry, 



26 

six of cavalry, and three batteries, making a total of 22,000 soldiers. 
Our State had no refuse population to enlist, as " food for powder." 
Her cities contained none of that element, found about the purlieus of 
vice in the great centres- of population. Her contribution to the armies 
of the Republic was a genuine oiFering of manhood and patriotism. 
From her fields, her workshops, her counting houses, her offices, and 
the halls of her schools and colleges, she contributed the best muscle, 
sinew and brain of an industrious, enterprising, and educated people. 
The first regiment of Iowa soldiers fought the battle of Wilson's 
Creek after their term of enlistment had expired, and after they were 
entitled to a discharge. They were citizen soldiers, each of whom had 
a personal interest in the struggle. It was to them no question of 
enlistment, of bounty, or of pay. When the gallant General Lyon 
placed himself at their head, and told them that the honor of Iowa and 
of the Nation was in their hands; he addressed men who knew what 
the appeal ment, and to whom such an appeal was never made in vain. 
At the fall election of 1861, party spirit had revived; and the contest 
for the control of the State administration was warm and earnest. A 
strong opposition to Governor Kirkwood's renomination had manifested 
itself inside of the Republican party. The State convention of the 
party, however, gave him a full and unequivocal endorsement. The 
State convention of the Democratic party was torn by dissensions 
between the war Democracts and those who had opposed coercion. 
The committee on platform made a majority and a minority report. 
Upon the adoption of the majority report, the President of the con- 
vention, Lincoln Claik, resigned the chair, and with the Dubuque and 
Des Moines delegations, seceded fiom the convention. Those who re- 
mained nominated Charles Maeon as their candidate for Governor, and 
W. PI. Merritt, late Lieutenant Colonel of the Frst Regiment of Iowa 
Volunteers, for Lieutenant Governor. A coalition of war Democrats 
and disaffected Republicans aho held a convention, and nominated 
Adjutant General Baker as their candidate for Governor. This honor 
the Adjutant General peremptorily declined. Mason first accepted the 
nomination tendered him and endorsed the platform upon which he 
was nominated. This platform condemned the war measures adopted 
by the National and State Administrations, and declared the $800,000 
loan unconstitutional. Subsequently Mason declined the nomination, 
and an attempt was made to rally the entire opposition upon Lieutenant 
Colonel Merritt, who was a war Democrat, and had made a good mili- 
tary record. The attempt was unsuccessful. Kirkwood was reelected 



27 

by a majority of 16,600 votes, with an overwhelming Republican 
majority in both branches of the General Assembly. 

In 1863 the Republican party again carried the State, electing their 
candidate for Governor, Wm. M. Stone, by a majority of 29,000. 

In the meantime the General Assembly had passed a law authorizing 
the "soldiers vote"; that is, citizens of the State in the volunteer mili- 
tary service of the United States, whether within or without the limits 
of the State, were authorized to open a poll on the day of the election, 
and to make return of their votes to the proper civil authorities. In 
the presidential contest of 1864, the popular vote at home was as fol- 
lows: Lincoln, 72,122 votes; McClellan, 47,703. The soldiers' vote 
returned was: Lincoln, 16,844; McClellan, 1,883. 

During these years of our history, the thoughts and energies of our 
people were intent upon the war. The State was simply a recruiting 
redezvous for the array. Our railroads and express lines were carrying 
away the strong and vigorous, and returning to us the bodies of the 
cherished dead. The social life of the people was made up to a great 
extent of meetings to raise means for sanitary and hospital supplies. 
Sociables were held, concerts given, festivals made; all with one object 
— to raise money for the sanitary commissions. The hearts of the 
women of Iowa, followed their loved ones to the field; and their every 
thought was, how they could alleviate the sufferings they were not per- 
mitted otherwi&e to share. Sanitary commissions, oiBcial and unofficial, 
were organized, that provoked one another to good works, and were 
sometimes provoked at one another for their good work. 

In the meantime the General Assembly did all in its power to en- 
courage enlistments and to protect the soldiers in the field and their 
families at home. Statutes were enacted suspending all suits against 
soldiers in the service, and all writs of execution or attachment against 
their property; and county boards of supervisors were authorized to 
vote bounties for enlistments, and pecuniary aid to the families of 
those in the service. The spirits of our people arose and fell, accord- 
ing to the success of our armies. One day the bells rung out with joy 
for the surrender of Vicksburg, and again the air seemed full of heavi- 
ness because of our defeats on the Peninsula; but through all these 
dark and trying days, the faith of the great majority never wavered. 
The emancipation proclamation of the President was to them the in- 
spiration of a new hope. The contest had been conducted upon the- 
ories that made slavery the very strength of the rebellion. Every 
slave in the field cultivating grain for the subsistence of the rebel army 



28 

was the equivalent of a citizen of the loyal States detained from the 
array to perform the same labor. To offer freedom to the slaves was 
to destroy the rebel base of supplies. But stroncjer than all these theories 
of political economy, was the religious faith of the people, that there 
was a Higher Power controlling the course of events — a Power that 
was no respecter of persons; that heard the cry of the oppressed; and 
that commanded men and nations to do justice and to love mercy. 
They believed that this Power had its own righteous purpose to fulfill 
in this clash of armies and shock of battles — that the " wrath of man 
would be made to praise Him, and the remainder of lorath he xoould 
restrain.'''' They believed that when slavery was ended, the war would 
end. 

It is fmpossible, in the reasonable length to which this paper 
should be limited, to write even a summary of the battles in which 
Iowa soldiers took a part. The history of her troops would be sub- 
stantially a history of the war in the South and West. To recount a 
portion of those battles and sieges would be to give a partial history 
to the neglect of others, equally deserving of honorable mention. A 
task alike impossible would it be to give here the names of the heroes, 
living and dead, who distinguished themselves by their courage and 
valor. Our efficient Adjutant General has preserved in the archives of 
his department, the material from which this glorious history will one 
day be written, for the honer of the State and the inspiration of the 
generations that shall come after us. In the Adjutant's Department 
at Des Moines, are preserved the shot-riddled colors and standards of 
our regiments. Upon them, by special authority, were inscribed, from 
time to time during the war, the names of the battlefields upon which 
these regiments gained distinction. These names constitute the geo- 
graphical nomenclature of two-thirds of the territory lately in rebel- 
lion. From the Des Moines River to the Gnlf, from the Mississippi to 
the Atlantic, in the mountains of West Virginia, and in the Valley of 
the Shenandoah, the Iowa soldier made his presence known and felt, 
and maintained the honor of the State and the cause of the Nation. 
They were with Lyon at Wilson's Creek, with Tuttle at Donelson. 
They fought with Siegel and with Curtis at Pea Ridge; with Crocker 
at Champion Hills; with Reid at Shiloh. They were with Grant at 
the surrender of Vicksburg. They fought above the clouds with 
Hooker at Lookout Mountain. They were with Sherman in his march 
to the sea, and were ready for battle when Johnston surrendered. 
They were with Sheridan in the Valley of the Shenandoah, and were 



29 

in the veteran ranks of the Nation's deliverers that stacked their arms 
in the National C'apital at the close of the war. 

The State furnished to the armies of the Republic during the war 
about seventy thousand men, and twenty thousand of these perished in 
battle or died of wounds received or diseases contracted in the service. 

The State has already paid into the National Treasury, under the pro- 
visions of the internal revenue act, over fifteen millions of dollars, and is 
still paying annually one million toward the extinction of the national 
debt. 

Her Senators and Representatives in Congress never failed to sus- 
tain the national administration in its most vigorous and radical war 
policy. 

According to her strength and her ability, Iowa redeemed the pledge 
she had made of her fidelity and attachment to the Union. She has 
sealed her vows, so freely made and oft repeated, by the suftering and 
death of twenty thousand of her brave sons, who gave their lives as 
an offering for the preservation of our nationality and the hope of its 
perpetuity. In this Centennial year of our nation's being, Iowa re- 
members at what cost the national life has been preserved. She has 
"charity toward all," and can forgive her countrymen, however much 
they may have wronged her living or her dead, but she does ask, in the 
name of the cause for which she lought and for which her noble dead 
were sacrificed, that there shall be no confusion in our national moral- 
ity, between right and wrong, between patriotism and treason, between 
the eftort to preserve our national life and the attempt to destroy it; 
she asks this, not only for the sake of the past, but for the hope of the 
future, and for the inspiration to duty that her children and her chil- 
dren's children may draw from the history of those dark and eventful 
years. And let those beware who would obliterate from the memory 
of our people a just understanding of the struggle through which we 
have passed, and a proper appreciation of the right and wrong it in- 
volved. We have everything to fear from such a lesson of moral ob- 
liquity upon the minds of those to whom, in the century to come, we 
must commit the duty of preserving this, our great Republic, the most 
worthy experiment of free government on earth, to which the nations 
now look as the brightest hope of huijiauity and the most cherished 
inspiration of civil and religious liberty. 

When, in the plenitude of His goodness the Divine Pland formed 
the great meadow between the Mississippi and the Missouri, and the 
finger of Divine Love traced the streamlets and rivers that drain and 



30 

water its almost every acre, He designed it not for the place of strife, 
but for the home of peace and plenty, and intended that here the 
ploughshare and pruning hook should achieve their greatest triumphs. 

At the close ot the war our citizen soldiers returned to their fields, 
their work-shops and offices, and soon began to repair the losses their 
absence had occasioned to the productive industry of the State. 

The limits of this paper will not admit of any further attempt at 
chronological history. A brief synopsis of the present condition of 
the State, which may be contrasted with the beginnings we have at- 
tempted to describe, will convey some idea of our progress and devel- 
opment. 

The first railroad across the State was completed to Council Bluifs 
in January, 1871. The completion of three others soon followed. In 
1854 there was not a mile of railroad track laid within the State. In 
1874, twenty years thereafter, the official returns show a total length of 
3,765 miles in successful operation. The gross earnings ot these roads 
for the years 1873 and 1874, returned by the railroad companies as a 
basis of taxation, was 115,568,907.00. The average gross earnmgs per 
mile for 1873 was ^4,138.99, and for 1874 was $4,136.56. 

The State of Iowa has an area of 55,045 square miles, or 35,228,800 
acres. Nearly ninety per cent, of this is prairie laud. These prairies 
are high and rolling, with gently undulating surtaces, forming a per- 
fect system of 'natural drainage. In this respect our land ditfers ma- 
terially from the fiat prairies or plains east and west of us. 

We have no mountains. The bluffs on the Mississippi and Missouri, 
and upon some of the streams of the interior of the State, are merely 
of sufficient elevation to give variety and beauty to the scenery. The 
highest table laud of the State is 1,400 feet above tlie level of the sea. 
The rivers of our eastern border have a uniform course, tromthe north- 
west to the southeast, and those on our western border from the north- 
east to the southwest. The rivers of the State that fiow into the Mis- 
sissippi are the Des Moines, Skunk, Iowa, (Jedar, WapKipinicon, Ma- 
quokeia, Turkey, and Upper Iowa. Uf these, the Des Moines is the 
largest. It rises beyond the northern boundary, at the extreme north- 
west of the State, and reaches the Mississippi at the southeast corner 
of the State. Its length is 350 piiles, and it drains an area of 10,000 
square miles. The two branches of the Skunk river aggregate 450 
miles in length. The Iowa is 300 miles long; the Wapsipinicon 240; 
the Maquoketa 160, and the Turkey 130 miles in length. 

On the western slope of the State the streams have not such great 



31 

• 

length, but the country is equally well watered. The principal rivers 
are the Big and Little Sioux, the P'loyd, Rock, Boyer, and Nishnabotna. 
In addition to these, we have upon the southern border the Fox, 
Chariton, Platte, and the East, West, and Middle Nodaway rivers. 
During the early history of Iowa, our streams were subject to frequent 
and excessive oveillow. When the waters receded, stagnant pools 
were left in the rich river bottoms. These bottoms were covered with 
a luxuriant growth of vegetation that decayed each year, tilling the 
atmosphere with malaria, and causing the much dreaded " fever and 
ague." As our lands have been brought under cultivation, the earth 
has absorbed more and more of the rains and melting snows, and the 
overflow of the rivers has been moditied. Herds of cattle now con- 
sume the vegetation that was formerly permitted to decay, and the 
ague has become almost a thing of the past. 

Iowa is not a timber State. Her woodlands are limited. The stumps 
from which our building material is chiefly taken will be found in the 
pineries of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and we pi'efer to have them 
there. Our best timber for the manufacture of wagons, carriages, and 
agricultural implements, is also imported. By actual experiment we 
have ascertained that we have sufficient timber for ordinary farm pur- 
poses. We have oak, hickory, black and white walnut, hard and soft 
maple, and the usual soft woods that grow upon river bottoms in our 
latitude. No one who has not made an actual examination of the soils 
of Iowa can form any just appreciation of them. We have now on 
exhibition in the Centennial buildings 15,000 pounds of Iowa soil, se- 
lected from 45 dirterent counties of our State. This exhibition shows 
a vertical section of the natural formation of the earth to the depth of 
six feet from the surface. The selection has been made from five sev- 
eral groups of seven counties each. The counties have been classified 
according to their contiguity, or natural location, as the northwest, 
northeast, southwest, southeast, and central. These specimens of 
strata are exhibited just in the condition they existed in the earth. The 
strata, undisturbed, have been transferred 'to glass tubes six inches in 
diameter and six feet in length. These tubes are encased in black wal- 
nut, and each labeled with the name of the county from which the 
strata have been taken. The object has been in good faith to show the 
world what Iowa really is, without exaggeration, and without room for 
cavil. Here is the formation from nature's own laboratory. Behold, 
what hath God wrought ! 

Our State is well supplied with an abundance of soft or bituminous 



32 

coal. It is found to some extent in the valley of the Mississippi, and 
in greater abundance in the regions of the Des Moines, Iowa, and 
Skunk rivers. The mines are yet but partially developed. The yield 
for 1874 was 1,231,547 tons. We also have a good supply of building 
stone in portions of the State. The value of the stone quarried in 1874 
w^s 1202,102, and of lime manufactured was $178,290. 

One of the most valuable products of our mines is the gypsum found 
in great abundance in the Upper Des Moines Valley, about Fort Dodge. 
The manufacture of plaster from this has been begun, and already 
large quantities are exported. It was from these quarries that the Car- 
diff Giant was taken. There is an abundant supply, enough to furnish 
New York with giants, and her scientists with material for grave and 
learned speculation for the next century. 

The manufacturing interests of our State are in their infancy. We 
have an abundance of water power, but it has been utilized to a very 
limited extent. The power generally used in manufacturing is steam. 
The whole number of manufacturing establishments in the State in 
1874 was 3,202; the total value of articles manufactured, $39,263,319; 
the number of hands employed, 18,854. 

The present population of the State is 1,350,000; of these, 563,000 
are native Hawkeyes, 583,000 are natives of other States of the Union, 
and 204,000 are foreign born. Of our naturalized voters we have about 
30,000 Germans and 18,000 natives of Ireland. 

The climate of Iowa is healthful and invigorating. Even the severe 
winds of winter that come to us with an accelerated sweep directly 
from tlie snow-capped summit of the Rocky Mountains, are feared no 
longer. The artificial groves and improvements upon our prairies, and 
which are fast tilling the plains west of us, are modifying the force of 
these winter blasts. The dead, humid atmosphere that depresses and 
enervates in the summer, and the chilling mists and drizzling rains 
that generate virulent fevers in the winter are unknown to our cli- 
mate. 

Iowa is peculiarly an agricultural State. Of the 35,000,000 acres of 
land in Iowa, only 12,658,495 acres have yet been put under cultivaton. 
In 1874, Iowa produced from 3,244,954 acres of land, 44,139,817 
bushels of wheat. She also produced the same year, from 4,019,738 
acres of land, 146,993,570 bushels of corn, being the largest yield of 
corn for 1874, of any State in the Union. The State of Illinois, 
heretofore the leading State in the production of this valuable grain, 
for the year 1873 produced 143,634,000 bushels of corn from 6,839,714 



33 

acres of land, being 3,369,000 bushels less of corn, and 2,820,000 more 
acres of land planted than in Iowa for 1874. In 1874, Illinois pro- 
duced 133,579,000 bushels of corn from 7,421,055 acres of land, being 
13,414,000 bushels less of corn, and 3,401,000 more acres planted than 
in Iowa for the same year. In the number of bushels of wheat pro- 
duced, Illinois led every State in the Union for the years 1873 and 
1874, except Iowa. 

In 1873 our wheat crop exceeded that of Illinois by over 3,000,000 
bushels, and in 1874 our wheat crop exceeded that of Illinois over 10,- 
000,000 bushels. Our own State census, which we believe to be re- 
liable, further shows that in 1874 Iowa was the third State of the 
Union in the production of oats, and also of barley. 

In addition to the wheat, corn, oats and barley as above specified, v/e 
produced for the same year 160,805 bushels of buckwheat, 432,008 
bushels of rye, 2,414,520 tons of hay, 7,289,953 bushels of potatoes, 
102,782 pounds of tobacco, 1.^386,908 gallons of sorgham molasses, and 
559,836 bushels of flax seed; also 1,451,Q37 bushels of apples, and 
9,400,885 pounds of grapes. 

We slaughtered and sold for slaughter the same year, 314,677 head 
of neat cattle, and 2,534,371 head of hogs. We sold for export 27,318 
head of horses and 4,498 head of mules. We also sheared the same 
year 2,340,914 pounds of wool and slaughtered 129,406 head of sheep, 
and gave 28,934 head to the dogs ! 

The value of farm products in Iowa for the year 1874 was $124,407,078 

Of garden produce 7^6,229 

Of orchards 1,215,659 

Of small fruits..... ,.... 488,259 

Of product of herds 42,261,039 

Of product of dairy 8,398,212 

Of product of forests 8,467,020 

Total value of agriculture $180,963,496 

Probably 25 per cent, of the value of the herds is included in the 
farm products of the current year, and to make these figures accurate 
#10,500,000 should be deducted from the above, leaving net value of 
agricultural products $170,463,496. 

To appreciate the magnitude of these figures we must remember 

them in connection with the fact that it has only been forty years siuce 

General Scott stood upon the western bank of the Mississippi, treating 

with savages for the first strip of this country that the white settler 

was permitted to occupy. 
5 



34 

Very early in the history of Iowa an effort was made to give intelli- 
gent direction to her agriculture. 

A State Agricultural Society was organized in ia54, and held its 
annual fair at Fairfield, Iowa, in October of that year. The Society is 
now one of the permanent institutions of the State, and has never, 
since its first organization, failed to hold its annual exhibition. The 
State has made liberal appropriations to sustain the organization, and 
has required it to make and publish full annual reports. The law has 
also encouraged county societies by annual appropriations for their 
benefit. The president of each county society, or other delegate 
chosen, is a member of the State organization, and has a vote in the 
selection of its officers and directors. The county societies are required 
to make their reports annually to the State Society, which is consti- 
tuted the representative and head of the agricultural interests of the 
State. 

Prior to 1862 the State sustained a Secretary of Agriculture as a 
department of her government. 

By act of Congress of July 20, 1862, Congress made an appropria- 
tion to the several States of the Union of an amount of public lands 
equal to 30,000 acres for each of their Senators and Representatives in 
Congress, the proceeds of which should be devoted to maintaining a 
college, wherein the leading object should be "to teach such branches 
of learning as related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." In 1858 
the State of Iowa had organized a board of trustees, of which the 
Governor of the State was ex-officio the President, for the purpose of 
establishing an experimental farm. In 1860 the necessary land was 
purchased in Story county, and suitable buildings were erected. In 
1864 and 1866 appropriations were made to erect a college building 
upon this farm. The building was completed in 1868, and the college 
has been in successful operation ever since. The pupils receive their 
tuition and' room-rent free of charge, and are boarded at actual cost. 
Each county in the State is entitled to send three scholars; the other 
scholarships to the extent of the capacity of the college are distributed 
by the Board of Trustees to the counties of the State according to 
.population. 

The law requires that all students shall engage in manual labor an 
average of two hours and a half each day (except Sundays) during the 
college year. On the first day of each month the President details for 
each superintendent of labor a certain number of pupils. At the end 
of the month the superintendents report the labor performed by each 



35 

scholar, and its value, and the students receive credit on their board 
bills for their work, at the rate of three to nine cents per hour, accor- 
ding to the value of the work performed. The school is open to both 
sexes, and no distinction is made in compensation for work done by 
reason of sex. In 1875, the college had an attendance of 277 students. 
The same year, it had twenty graduates — eleven males and nine 
females. The whole number of graduates since its organization is 
eighty. 

There is no other subject connected with our civilization and pro- 
gress in which the people of Iowa have taken so deep an interest as in 
that of education. Our public schools have especially engaged the at- 
tention of our best citizens and legislators. 

Our last school census shows that we have over 500,000 children and 
youths in the State between the ages of five and twenty-one. Of these, 
125,371 are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years; and of 
their number 2,514, or two percent., cannot read and write. The num- 
ber of scholars enrolled in our public schools for 1875 was 384,012, 
and the average daily attendance was 225,415. Xumber of teachers 
employed in 1864 — males, 6,500; females, 11,645. Average compensa- 
tion of male teachers per month, $36.68; of female teachers, $28.34. 

Whole amount paid out for teachers in 1875 S-2,598,446 

For school-houses 798,811 

For apparatus and libraries 26,700 

For interest on school bonds 298,172 

Contingent expenses 802,626 

Total $4,605,747 

Value of public school houses in the State in 1875 $8,617,956 

Apparatus 119,591 

Total $8,737,547 

Upon the permanent school fund of the State, created by congres- 
sional grants of land and other means, the State realizes eight percent, 
for the annual support of schools. The principal of this fund, under 
the constitution and laws, cannot be impaired. The amount of this 
fund is 13,363,960. 

The right and duty of the State to maintain a general system of 
popular education, and to support the same by the levy of taxes, has 
thus been recognized and established in Iowa. The theory upon which 
this right has been asserted, is thus clearly and logically set forth in 



36 

the inaugural message of Gov. Grimes iu December, 1854: "Govern- 
ment is organized to establish justice, promote the public welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty. * * * To accomplish these high 
aims of government, the first requisite is ample provision for the edu- 
cation of the youth ot the State. * * * It is agreed that the 
safety and perpetuity of our Republican institutions, depend upon the 
diffusion of intelligence among the masses of the people. The sta- 
tistics of the penitentiaries and almshouses throughout the country, 
abundantly show that education is the best preventive of crime. 
They show also that the prevention of these evils is much less ex- 
pensive than the punishment of the one and the relief of the other." 
In accordance with these principles the Governor recommended, that 
the then system of jyer capita taxation upon scholars should be abol- 
ished, "Property," continued the Governor, "is the only legitimate 
subject of taxation. It has its duties as well as its rights. It needs 
the conservative inflaences of education, and should be made to pay 
for its own protection." Tiie common school system of Iowa has, 
since 1854, been sustained on this just basis of property taxation — a 
basis wholly inconsistent with the idea that any sect or class in the 
community may claim exemption from taxation for school purposes be- 
cause they do not choose to avail themselves of the benefits of the sys- 
tem, or that they may divert to the support of sectarian schools any 
portion of the taxes thus levied because they educate their own chil- 
dren. So long as property receives the incidental protection arising 
from the general education of the masses, it must contribute to that 
general system of education from which the safety and security of all 
property arises. Popular education, sustained by compulsory taxation, 
is one of the legitimate functions of government; and it is contrary to 
the genius of American institutions, that any of these functions should 
be committed to private ecclesiastical establishments. Religious de- 
nominations have a right, of their own choice, to supplement the 
efforts of government in advancing the intelligence and morality of 
the people, and in doing so may employ their own methods and seek 
their own peculiar ends; but their work is voluntary, and must, of ne- 
cessity, be gratuitous. 

The Iowa State University was organized in 1856, and has its pei*- 
manent location at Iowa City. It now has in successful operation its 
Academical, Medical, and Law Departments. For 18*75, the Acade- 
mical Department reports 146 students in the regular collegiate course, 
and 277 non-collegiate; in the Law Department, 106 students; in the 



37 

Medical Department, 94. The institution is supported partly by en- 
dowmont and partly by tuition fees. 

The State has, from time to time, made liberal appropriations for 
permanent buildings, library, etc. In connection with the State Uni- 
versity, the General Assembly in 1857 provided for the organization of 
a State Historical Society, and small annual appropriations have since 
been made for the purchase and preservatiea of books, maps, charts, 
manuscripts, paintings, etc., illustrative of the history of the State. 
This Society has published a quarterly magazine, called the " Annals 
of Iowa," which has now reached its thirteenth volume. It contains 
many valuable contributions to our early history, and from its collec- 
tion of incidents of the early settlement of the State, many of the facts 
set forth in this paper are taken. 

The State has not been undmindful of its unfortunate classes. In 
1853 a school for the blind was established at Iowa City, in a tempo- 
rary building. In 1858 provision was made for a permanent institu- 
tion at Vinton, in Benton county. The school is supported by annual 
appropriations from the State treasury. In connection with this insti- 
tution, and under the same management, is an industrial home for the 
blind, for the employment of such blind persons in the State as are 
dependent upon their own labor for support. The department is 
self-supporting. 

The school for the care and education of the deaf and dumb was 
first organized in 1855. A permanent building was provided for the 
institution at Council Bluffs in 1870. 

The fii'st institution of the State for the care of the insane was erect 
ted at Mt. Pleasant, in Henry county. The woi'k was begun in 1855, 
and the buildings first occupied in 1861. The erection of a second 
building, for a like purpose, was commenced by the State at Independ- 
ence, in Buchanan county, in 1868. 

In 1870, the State made an appropriation for the erection of a per- 
manent State-house at Des Moines. The structure is beautiful in de- 
sign, and is supposed to be permanent and enduring in its material and 
construction. Its estimated cost is about two millions of dollars. The 
third story of the building will be complete at the close of this cen- 
tennial year. 

At the close of the war, the gratitude of the people of Iowa towards 
her citizens who had fallen in defense of the country, found a practi- 
cal expression in the establishment of homes for the maintenance and 
education of soldiers' orphan children. The first institution for this 



38 

purpose was established by voluntary contributions, at Davenport, in 
1864. In 1866 the institution was adopted by the State, and two oth- 
ers of a like character established — one at Cedar Falls and one at 
Glenwood. Ten dollars per month for each scholar was .appropriated 
by the General Assembly from the State treasury for Iheir support. 

The present value of buildings for our State institutions, including 
the estimated cost of the capitol building, is as follows: 

State Capitol $2,000,000 

State University 400,000 

Agricultural College and Farm 300,000 

Institution forthe Blind 150,000 

Institution for the Deaf and Dumb 225,000 

Institution for Insane at Mt. Pleasant 455,000 

Institution for Insane at Independence 694,000 

Orphans' Home at Davenport 62,000 

Penitentiary at Ft. Madison 225,000 

Penitentiary at Anamosa 183,000 

Normal School 50,000 

Reform School 90,000 

Total $4,834,000 

The State has never levied more than 2^ mills on the dollar for State 
tax, and the law at present limits the levy for State purposes to that 
amount. This levy is upon a valuation upon the real estate of only 40 
per cent, of its actual cash value. We have no State debt, save the 
$300,000 " war and defense " bonds, which, by their terms, cannot be 
paid until 1881, and which are now worth 106 cents on the dollar in the 
market; and also a debt to our own permanent school fund of $243,000. 
The present State capitol will be completed from the ordinary revenue 
arising from the two-mill tax for State purposes. 

In addition to the public schools and colleges of the State, we have 
seminaries and colleges under the patronage of various religious de- 
nominations. We also have a few unsectarian institutions. The aggre- 
gate statistics of the colleges and seminaries are as follows; 

Number of scholars in collegiate departments, males, 1,491; females, 
812. In other departments, males, 990; females, 1,119. Number of 
scholars in schools of seminary grades, males, 4,198; females, 4,274. 
Teachers employed, males, 201; females, 220. Number of volumes in 
library, 34,645. Aggregate incomes, $106,783. In addition to these, 
we have also the medical college at Keokuk, one of the oldest and most 
successful institutions in the Northwest. 



39 

Besides the educational influences of the schools and colleges, we 
have those of the pulpit and Sunday-school. The Protestant churches 
of the State have an aggregate membership of over 200,000: 

Nalue of their church property $5,000,000 

Number of ordiined ministers . 2,000 

Number of scholars in; Suuday-schools 150,000 

Number of Sunday school teachers 20,000 

The Catholic church numbers 150,000. Value of their church 
property, 11,080,000. Number of Priests, 135. Scholars in Sunday 
School, 35,000, 

No other influence has contributed so much to the progress and de- 
velopment of Iowa as the newspapers of the State. No class of men 
have labored more assiduously or disinterestedly for the development 
of the State, and the advancement of her material interests, than her 
editors. The number and character of the papers read and published 
in the State, indicate the mental activity of the people, and their gen- 
eral intelligence and enterprise. We have already given some account 
of the first newspaper published in the Black Hawk purchase, in 1836. 
The Burlington Gazette dates its establishment in 1837, and the Hawk- 
Eye in 1839, There are now published in Iowa 25 daily papers, 364 
weekly papers, and 13 monthly publications. These are well supported 
by our people, and our daily papers especially exhibit a. worthy enter- 
prise. We have every morning, fresh from the gossip of the lightning, 
the news of the world's d.ings. 

Such is, briefly, a summary of the history and resources of Iowa — of 
her early settlement, her party aftiliations, her war record, her topog- 
raphy and natural resources, her agricultural productions, her institu- 
tions, her schools, colleges, churches, press, and people. There is, 
perhaps, no other country on earth where so few people are either rich 
or poor as in Iowa; where there is such an equality of condition, and 
where so many enjoy a competence. The law exempts from execution 
a homestead to every head of a family. At the relative price of 
property and labor, every industrious, sober man can, in a short time, 
acquire a home. With us, in fact, mechanics and day laborers soon 
acquire an interest in the soil; and with property to protect, they feel a 
personal direct interest in the maintenance of law and order. The 
children of the laboring man have no prejudice of caste to overcome in 
the eflort they may choose to make for the improvement of their con- 
dition in life. Here all men enjoy the inalienable blessings of "life, lib- 



40 

erty, and the pursuit of happiness," not only unfettered by legal disa- 
bilities, but also untrammeled by those fixed conditions of social and 
business life that elsewhere result from accumulated wealth in the posses- 
sion of the few. As education is free, so, also, the avenues of success are 
open in every pursuit and calling. The highest incentive exists to ex- 
ei'tion. Labor and effort, whether manual or mental, are held alike 
honorable; and idleness and crime are alone considered disreputable. 
Indeed the intense mental activity of our people, and their untiring 
energy in the pursuit of wealth, threaten serious results to their social 
and moral well-being. How to temper business pursuits with pleasures 
that relax the mind and body, and refresh aiid restore without producing 
vitiated tastes and appetites, is a problem we are yet to solve as a 
people. The great curse of intemperance is one with which Iowa has 
struggled for the past twenty-five years of her history. Whether it be 
the result of climate or natural temperament, or is the reflex influence 
of our own habits, the fact is, we do nothing in moderation. If we 
indulge in dissipation, it is with the same earnestness and determination 
to make a success, of it as though it were some laudable business 
pursuit. 

In 1851 our General Assembly prohibited, under severe penalties, the 
keeping of places of public resort for the sale of intoxicating liquors 
to be drank on the premises where sold. The code of 1851 declared 
against the whole system of license, and especially provided that 
thereafter the people of the State should take no part in the profits of 
the sale of intoxicating liquors. This was followed, in 1854, by a still 
more stringent law, sanctioned by a direct vote of the people. In 1858 
the law of 1854 was so modified as to permit the sale of beer and native 
wines. In the cities on the Mississippi, and in some of the larger 
interior towns, this law has not received suflicient moral support from 
the masses of the people to insure its enforcement. Even where the 
law has been enforced many evasions have occurred. In the interior 
of the State, and especially in the locality of some of our educational 
institutions the law has been of great value. The people have steadily 
adhered to it, and all efforts to return to the license system have proved 
unsuccessful. 

In presenting this history of the State and this statement of its re- 
sources, we have not speculated upon the possibilities of the future. 
Iowa is capable of sustaining a people equal to the present population 
of the entire nation. We are increasing at a ratio that will, if con- 
tinued, give us such a population in the coming century. What may 



41 

be the result of such a vast accumulation of people, and of the necessary 
increase of wealth and luxury attending it, we cannot know. Our 
responsibilities are great, even as our blessings and privileges. We can 
only do our duty in our day and generation, and leave the future to Him 
who doeth all things well, with the earnest supplication that to us and 
our children and our children's children, this goodly land may be an 
inheritance forever. 

Iowa hails with joy this centennial of our nation's birth. She renews 
her vows of devotion to our common country, and looks with hope to 
the future. The institution of slavery, that once rested as a shadow 
upon the land, that was fast producing a diverse civilization dangerous 
to our unity and nationality, has been forever abolished. 

This centennial exhibition of our national greatness and material 
progress, must re-awaken in the mind and heart of every American 
emotions of profound love for his country, and of patriotic pride in her 
success. Surely no American would consent that such a civilization as 
is evidenced here should perish in the throes of civil war. If there be 
anything in the history of Iowa and its wonderful development to 
excite a just pride, the other, and especially the older States of the 
Union may justly claim to share in it. Such as we are, the emi- 
gration from the other States made us. Our free soil, free labor, tree 
schools, free speech, free press, free worship, free menj and free women, 
were their free gift and contribution. Iowa is the thirty-year old child 
of the Republic that celebrates the first centennial of its birth. Our 
State is simply the legitimate offspring of a civilization that has found 
its highest expression in building up sovereign States. Iowa was not 
a colony planted by the oppressions of the parent government, and 
that threw off her allegiance as soon as she gained strength to assert 
her independence; but she was the outgrowth of the natural vitality 
and enterprise of the nation, begotten in obedience to the divine com- 
mand to multiply and replenish — born a sovereign by the will and 
desire of the parent, and baptized at the font of liberty as a voluntary 
consecration of her political life. Not a sovereign in that absolute 
sense that would make the Federal Government an impossibility, but 
sovereign within her sphere and over the objects and purposes of her 
jurisdiction, with such further limitations only upon her powers as 
renders an abuse of them impossible, to the end that the personal 
liberty and private rights of the citizen, should be more secure. 

This wonderful exhibition of mechanical skill, of cunning workman 
ship, and of the fruits of the earth, is but the evidence of the existence 



42 

and character of the people that have produced them. The great 
ultimate fact that America would demonstrate is, the existence of a 
people capable of attaining and preserving a superior civilization, with 
a government self-imposed, self-administered, and self-perpetuated. In 
this her centennial year, America can exhibit nothing to the world of 
mankind more wonderful or more glorious than her new States — young 
empires, born of her own enterprise, and tutored at her own political 
hearthstone. Well may she say to the monarchies of the old 
world, who look for evidences of her regal grandeur and state: "Behold, 
these are my jewels." And may she never blush to add: "This one in 
the center of tjxe djadem is called Iowa." 








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